Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Water, Water...Everywhere...

This post is all about erecting the water catchment tank, and since there are a lot of pictures, I thought I would try another slideshow. Click on the little balloon in the lower left corner to see the picture captions, and use the "Pause" button to slow it down.

In this region of Hawaii, most rural homes use a rainwater catchment system composed of the roof, gutters, and a storage tank for their domestic water supply. Fire insurance underwriters require at least 10,000-gallon capacity since there is no other source of water although many older homes have less. Some sources say that a family of four will use 200 gallons of water per day (we use about twenty!), so this represents about fifty days storage if a drought were to occur. We purchased 5,000 gallons delivered by truck to get the system jump-started. When we connect the roof catchment system, we should collect about 1,000 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. Since Eden Roc receives about 200 inches of rain per year, we should always have a full tank!



I will update this post when we install the gutters, overflow, and "first-flush" components.

2 comments:

Raven said...

hello- I'm a lurker here for about a week. What I have seen on your blog is great. my husband and I are working toward building your house that is in the same area. (hawaiian acres) and watching your progress is great! all the best on finishing your house!!! and stay dry! if you can.

Daring to Live Our Dream said...

How much was your water delivery?